According to Wikipedia, a trial garden is “a garden grown specifically for the purpose of testing and evaluating plants…” Applewood Seed Company’s trial garden is that and so much more! Research carried out in our test gardens includes quality control for individual flower seeds and flower seed mixes, testing new species and mixes, working out […]
Here at Applewood Seed Company we create flower seed mixes to fit various applications and uses. For example, these include mixes for ornamental purposes, pollinator conservation, wildlife plantings, garden flowers, xeriscaping, and for various geographic regions. These mixes come from years of experience testing individual species and mixes in our trial gardens. Experience makes a difference! Therefore, we believe you will find our mixes to be of high quality and to be well-suited to the intended application.
Mix Components
The majority of our mixes are a blend of annual and perennial flowers which contain early, mid-, and late blooming flowers. Additionally, these mixes provide color throughout the season. The species are balanced according to seed size, plant size and aggressiveness. We create flower seed mixes on site and then store them in our climate-controlled warehouse, ensuring a high quality product. Because the mixes contain primarily open-pollinated flowers, they provide nectar and pollen for any pollinators that happen to take an interest in the wildflowers.
What to Expect
In the first year of sowing a mix, the annuals will bloom and act as a nurse crop to the slower growing perennials. Perennials establish their root structure the first year. You might overlook the perennials this first season as most only produce leaves. (Therefore, make sure you don’t “weed out” everything that is not blooming; you will lose your perennial bloom for future years!) As the annuals finish blooming, it is best to let them go to seed, enabling them to reseed themselves for a second year of blooming. While the wildflower mix springs into its second year of life, the perennials will now bloom along with the reseeded annuals to provide an aesthetic and colorful display.
Please feel free to look through the photos of all our flower mixes here on our website. And if you have any to share, we would love to see them!
Send to sales@applewoodseed.com
Eastern Xeriscape Mix
When most people think about flowerbeds they picture a person walking out with a little watering can and gently pouring water over beautiful and vibrant flowers. However, other types of gardening techniques are practiced across the US and around the world. One method that has become popular over the last few decades is xeriscaping. Xeriscaping is gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for water by planting drought resistant plant species. This practice is becoming more and more important as many cities and states are showing sensitivity to water consumption. Read more →
The genus, Gazania, comes from the Latin word gaza meaning treasure. This flowering “treasure” belongs to the Aster family. The Colorado Gold® variety is native to the grassy slopes and rocky cliffs of the Drakensberg Mountains in Southern Africa. Of special note, this particular flower is a Plant Select variety introduced in 1998. Read more →
The Monarch Butterfly is probably one of the most recognizable butterflies in North America. It is in trouble! Monarch populations have been declining for a number of years. The loss of food (nectar) plants and milkweeds has been indicated as a major contributor to these declines. By growing nectar sources and milkweeds, which are host plants for the monarch, you can help to offset these losses. To assist in the conservation of the monarch butterfly, we have created two seed mixes:
Monarch Butterfly Garden Mix – this is composed of wildflowers, garden flowers and milkweeds. Plant it in most areas of the U.S. and southern Canada. It is recommended for home gardens, golf courses, parks, businesses and other maintained garden sites.
Native Flower Mix for Monarchs – this is composed entirely of wildflowers and milkweeds that are native to the Midwest. It is useful for planting in the summer breeding range and flyway zones in the Midwestern part of North America. It is recommended for meadow plantings, roadsides, and revegetation projects.
One of our native wildflowers, Helenium amarum, comes from the genus, Helenium, believed to be named after Helen of Troy. The species name, amarum, means bitter, which refers to the bitter taste of the plants. Other common names are Bitterweed, American Bitterweed and Bitter Sneezeweed.
Dwarf Helenium is a native annual from Texas, the Southeastern and Midwestern U.S. It is typically found in prairies, pastures, woodland openings and along roadsides. Plants grow to 12 inches high, have a mounding habit and have very fine, thread-like leaves. They have bright yellow flowers and are very long-blooming; flowering occurs from summer through early fall.
We here at Applewood Seed Company are so excited to finally have the opportunity to show off our new website! It has been a long time in the making, and a lot more effort than we originally expected, but it is finally here. Even more exciting is that we are not done yet. We are […]
In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere right now nature is busy breaking seed dormancy through the application of cold and moisture. Some seeds, often perennials, exhibit dormancy or “the incapacity of a viable seed to germinate under favorable conditions.”(1) Dormancy fulfills an important function for plants since it allows seeds to survive conditions and […]
We have added some colorful, favorite garden flowers to our offerings this year. Lobelia ‘Crystal Palace’ (Lobelia erinus) is an old-fashioned annual favorite that can be used for rock gardens, beds, border edges and containers. The compact plants have deep blue flowers that bloom all summer long and can be planted in full sun or […]
New for 2016 are a variety of flowers known as “everlastings” or, in France, as “immortelles.” These are flowers that keep their color and form when they are dried. Many of these species have colorful, papery petals or bracts that are dry and stiff while still attached to the living plant.
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